Love Lasts Forever
by AussieObssessed
Summary: Love is like a war, easy to begin, hard to end. It isn’t just any war it’s me against the love of my life. The greatest distance in this world is not life and death, but when an invisible barrier springs up between you two. This is what happened to me.


**Love Lasts Forever**

Disclaimer: I own nothing! This disclaimer thing is very tiring. Well, enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

Love is like a war…

Easy to begin…

Hard to end…

Love may touch us for just a breathless second, but it is remembered for a lifetime.

I realize this in The War. It isn't just any war; it's me against the love of my life. The greatest distance in this world is not life and death, but when you are standing right next to the person you love and yet the two of you aren't actually that close. It is when an invisible barrier springs up between you two. This is what happened to me.

Now you may want to know how this is possible when Ron Weasley is sitting only two feet away, munching on a donut as if nothing was wrong with the world. Well, it is possible because Ron isn't my special one.

Are you sitting down? Good, because you sink to the floor in disbelief. The love of my life is Draco Malfoy. Yes, the same one who has called me a mudblood since we were in our second year at Hogwarts. Falling in love with him wasn't intentional, I swear. In fact, I loathed him at first. Then, slowly, we began to the goodness in each other. Don't ask me how. It just happened. To the world, it seemed as if we despised each other when really it was the complete opposite: love. Or so I thought.

_Sixth Year._ The end of my life as I knew. It. Gone were the moments that I could spend engulfed in Draco's arms. Gone were the times where I could love and be loved. That year, Draco showed me and every one else whose side of the war he really was on. When Dumbledore died, an invisible barrier sprung up between Draco and me. However, I still did and do love him. But he says, _"In war, no love is to be shown. In war, no distractions are to be made."_

I suddenly feel overwhelmed with my emotions and Harry and Ron's quiet musings. I tell them that I am going to the lake beyond the Forbidden Forest. They, in turn, tell me to be careful and watch out for death eaters.

I stand under the tree near the lake where Draco and I created so many wonderful memories just enjoying each other's company. Though engulfed in my thoughts, I still hear the slight rustle in the trees behind me. Uncharacteristically, I just sigh. What does it matter if I am alive or dead? I am a living corpse anyway. I die every time I see him. Why not just kill me once and for all and spare me the pain of seeing my life flicker and burn out like a candle's flame in the wind?

As you can see, I really don't care who it is, getting closer and closer to me.

I feel it seconds before it happens: the painful sensation that could only arise from the curse of a person tainted with the color of the darkness. Such a curse is almost exactly like a bullet. It strikes in one location, but pain surges throughout the whole body. Two curses later (three total), the victim is lifeless.

"Strike one," I mutter with unconquerable tears streaming down my pale cheeks. The green grass splattered with something, which resembled something suspiciously like my blood, rushes up to meet me as my knees become weak.

I remember what Luna Lovegood once told me. She was the only one who ever understood or even knew about the relationship between Draco and me. _"If you love him, let him go. If he comes back to you, then he was always yours."_ Would my love ever come back to me? Would Draco come looking for me and hold me in his arms while I take my last breath? Would he be the shield that shelters the defenseless flame of the candle from nature?

Waking me from my ruminations, another bullet-like curse is fired at me. This time, it hits my stomach. "Strike two," I say, mustering up every ounce of Gryffindor courage I have left. I force myself to lift my head and look around before even this becomes impossible. My gaze immediately falls on the silent attacker whose wand was still pointed straight at me.

Even before he comes within my field of view, I know whom it is. A flood of memories surges into my mind…the nights that I had spent crying myself to sleep because of his absence, every cherished moment we had together, all the that I had wondered whether I would ever smile so genuinely with anyone else…

"You?" I whisper, disbelief dripping from the three-letter word and lingering in the air between us. Pressing my hand against the blood that refuses to stay within the boundaries of my body, I await his response.

"Yes, it's me. Surprised?" he taunts bitterly.

"But, why?" I wince as pain sears through my veins. I don't know how much longer I can hold on. "I loved you!"

He laughs a sad, sweet laugh. Though it is a depressed one, it still has the power to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. "You don't even know what love is!"

I close my eyes and say gently, "Love is giving someone a chance to destroy you, but trusting them not to. It's when their face occupies your every thought. Love, to me, is you. And it lasts forever."

When I slowly open my eyes again, I see him kneel beside me and shut his own eyes in an attempt to stop his tears from overflowing.

I whisper weakly, "It hurts! Stop it from hurting me, Draco." A final memory comes to my thoughts. Draco and I had been walking barefoot near the lake and I had stepped on a big thorn. With blood oozing out of the cut, I had asked him to stop it from hurting. He had then promised to always be there to ease my pain. I almost laugh at the irony of the current situation and what he had once promised me.

I see Draco nodding to my request. "I'm sorry," he breathes into my ear before straightening up. He points his long, thin wand at me one lat time.

As he mumbles the final part of the curse, I think, "Strike three." And the last thing I see before succumbing to the darkness is the love of my life. The look of pure love and sincere apologies in his stormy gray eyes, which seemed to be incapable of preventing the production of more salty tears, is etched into my heart forever.

I fall to my knees and kiss her eyes shut. It kills me to think that I will never see those beautiful, innocent, honey brown eyes smiling with joy again. _Hermione Jane Granger. _It could have been _Hermione Jane Malfoy_, but I ruined it.

I carefully place her head on my lap. As I brush away a few strands of her beautiful, curly, brown hair from her beautiful face, I apologize to her with all my heart. "I'm sorry, love. Voldemort had Narcissa in his clutches and he would have killed her had I not killed you first. I know that's no excuse for taking away another innocent life, but for once, it's the truth. Thank you for all the wonderful memories you gave me a chance to treasure for all my life. Thank you for seeing the real me when no one else could."

I could feel the tears building up in my eyes again, but I go on anyway. "I'm sorry, Hermione. You were the best thing that ever happened to me. And every time I saw pain in your eyes, it felt as if a thousand swords were being pushed into my body at once. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't come back to you. I shot you once at the leg for all the times that you would run up to me and give me a hug. I shot you once at the stomach because so many times you would go hungry wondering how I was and thinking that I wouldn't know you hadn't eaten. Then, later, we would meet and you would make feeble excuses for not eating while I fed you your favorite foods from the kitchens. And lastly, I shot you once in the forehead because…remember what you said? About love being when my face occupied your thoughts all the time? That's why. But I never shot your heart. I could destroy your body, your memories, everything, but not your love. It's too precious."

I finally look up from her angelic face and see the faint rays of the sun rising over the horizon. Gently, I pick Hermione up and take her back to the Dark Lord's battle camp. I hand her over to Blaise. After warning him to take care of her and receiving a sympathetic look from him, I trudge along to Lord Voldemort's quarters.

Upon entering, I see my mother tied up and looking weak. "Ah! Draco Lucius Malfoy. Look Narcissa, your son is back. Back from killing that filthy little mudblood. Do you want to know what I told him? I told him that I would release you when he killed that girl. Ha! If the Dark Lord wants something, he doesn't make deals for it," Voldemort says in his menacing voice. At this point, he turns to look at me with a look of loathing in his eyes. "Don't think that I didn't know you love her. You love your mother too, don't you?"

My heart fills with worry for I realized what he is going to do. He glares at me until I whisper, "yes, master."

"Well she is no longer of any use to me, so AVADA KEDAVRA!" A bright green beam of light shoots out of Voldemort's wand and strikes my mother squarely in the chest.

I shut my eyes and back out of the tent quickly. I run. Away, away from the maniacal laughter that lingers in the eerie silence of the Dark Side.

I cross the invisible line between the two sides of the war and keep running. Suddenly, I run into someone. It is Luna Lovegood. Taking one look at my tear stained face, she takes me to Harry Potter. Luna explains to them the situation, taking care to make it seem as if someone else had killed Hermione. (I had told her the whole story, truthfully, on the way to Potter's tent.)

_That day was the last day of The War._

**. : One Year Later : .**

I hear that the Ministry of Magic has built a memorial for all the people who died in The War. I get up early and thank Harry for vanquishing the Dark "Lord", as is my daily routine. Then, I decide to visit this new memorial.

Upon entering, I place her favorite flowers, red roses—the flowers of love as she used to say, in front of her part of the wall.

As I leave, I realize for the first time that I am kind of glad that my mother is dead because her presence can't constantly remind me of my guilt of making that fatal mistake. I look up into the heavens and whisper to my love, "Once you appeared in my, you made it beautiful, perfect, and worth living for. You may have left my eyes, left my life, but you never left my heart or my mind. Hermione Jane Granger, I love you!"

And I know that she heard because I felt her radiant smile and the kiss full of love that she had placed on my cheek in the form of a sudden, light cool breeze.

She had forgiven me.

She was right. Love does last forever.

"_I love you, Draco Lucius Malfoy."_


End file.
